Gone for Good
by mserra109
Summary: Sequel to 'The Forgotten', thirty years after the Holocaust, the Colonial survivors confront the thought-gone Cylon threat and resume the search for the fabled thirteenth colony.
1. Chapter 1

The Light Cruiser _Ares _glided smoothly through space, the half-mile ship exhibiting all of its glory, name ship of the _Ares _class, the ship resembled a _Valkyrie-class _Battlestar but lacked the flight pods that characterized the former, instead it had a hangar bay amidships suited for Raptors and other small craft, following the warship were two small dart-like ships, the Patrolstars _Delphi _and _Hypathia_.

Onboard the CIC of _Ares_, forty-seven year old Colonel Sandra Walker watched the DRADIS screen, in which were two green dots that sat protectively near the _Ares_.

The ship and her escorts, known as the 3rd Heavy Cruiser group were on a deep space patrol mission, over the last two years the newly formed Intelligence Division of the Colonial Fleet, led by Rear Admiral Gaeta had ordered for a fleet Task Force to be sent towards the Lions Head Nebula, which supposedly was a waypoint on the way to Earth, the Nebula was over fifteen thousand light years away from New Kobol, even using the new Mk IV FTL Drives which had been developed by reverse-engineering the FTL Drives of Heavy Raiders captured during the war, the Colonial Ships would take over a year to reach it.

The ship had been built twenty years earlier at the New Kobol Shipyards, as part of the initiative to rebuild the Colonial Fleet should the Cylon threat return, the so-called 'Thrace Plan' that was designed by the ace Viper pilot and then Head of New Kobol Flight Academy Colonel Kara Thrace consisted of creating a massive net of over a hundred manned defensive satellites, each the size of a Raptor, in geosynchronous orbit around the planet, followed by the recommisioning of five _Valkyrie-class _Battlestars which had been disabled during the original cylon attack and were left untouched by the Cylons, the colonials then proceeded to reinstate the Colonial Army as a branch of the CDF, on one of the salvaging missions to the colonies a Raptor crew had discovered a Cylon-War era military depot at Gemenon which contained a hundred tanks, one hundred and fifty IFV's and forty artillery pieces, and an amount of ammunition that was sufficient to keep an entire division supplied during war-time, in an operation that lasted over a month, freighters brought all of the vehicles to New Kobol, these vehicles made the backbone of the Colonial Army, now fifteen thousand strong, that stood strong to protect the population of New Kobol, which according to the latest census was around one hundred and fifty thousand colonists.

* * *

__**Ares CIC**.

"XO, Sitrep" she asked to her executive officer, Major Helen Shaw, daughter of newly-promoted Rear Admiral Kendra Shaw, head of the Colonial Fleet Deep Space Survey program.

"Everything as usual sir, although _Delphi _reports they have a problem with one of their Co2 scrubbers, but according to their crew chief they should have it fixed in no time" the young officer reported.

"Good, have the CAG task two Raptors and to have them jump to the next jump coordinates" Walker ordered.

"Aye aye sir" the major complied.

Twenty eight year old Major Helen Shaw had graduated from the Colonial Fleet Command Academy ten years ago and had been a rising star in the Colonial Fleet ever since, she first started as the personal aide for Colonel Thrace, she was then promoted to Captain and reassigned to the position of Fleet HQ Liason to the then-new Intelligence Division of the Defense Ministry, just six months ago she was promoted again and assigned to be the her XO.

* * *

**One hour later**

Lt. David 'Reaper' Thompson glided his MkIII Raptor though a thick asteroid field, he'd been doing so since four hours ago, as his ECO, Lt. John 'Gray' Cooper had missed slightly in the jump calculations and they had ended up in the middle of an asteroid field, millions of miles from they were supposed to have jumped, he would have to maneuver the Raptor outside of the field and to make small jumps to the planet they were supposed to scan.

"How long till we get out of this clusterfrak skipper?" the young ECO asked.

"Best estimate is another hour at sublight" Thompson responded.

The ECO cursed under his breath.

"Hey, you got us in this mess" the pilot complained.

"Yeah, but the Nav Officer gave us this frakked up coordinates" the ECO said.

"Okay, we have to get that long-range scan data or the CAG will have our ass"

"Yeah, I don't understand why we do this crap, even with the new recon cameras we have to get painfully close to get decent data out of planets"

Suddenly the DRADIS beeped once, making the hearts of the two pilots skip a beat.

"What do we have?" Thompson asked anxiously.

"One unknown contact, small size, holding still at bearing seven niner karom one nine, at two thousand clicks" the ECO reported.

"Has it detected us?" the pilot asked.

"I don't think so"

"Focus the recon camera on the target" the pilot ordered.

An image, first blurry as the million-cubit recon camera the Raptor carried, capable of spotting an human being tens of thousands of clicks away zoomed in on the target, the blurry image showed a small, metal glow near an asteroid, as the image cleared, the distinctive image of a Cylon Heavy Raider was shown, the pilot nearly had a heart attack.

"Spoil up the FTL, we need to get out of here right frakking now" he ordered urgently.

"FTL ready, jumping in five!" the ECO reported anxiously, seconds later the ship jumped.

* * *

**Ares CIC**

"Sir, DRADIS contact!" the DRADIS officer exclaimed.

"Identify!" Walker barked.

"IFF confirms as Raptor 119, the pilot requests to speak to you sir" the DRADIS officer reported.

"Pass him though" Walker ordered as she picked up the Wireless headset.

"This is _Ares _Actual" she said.

_"This is Raptor 115, Code Blue, I say again, Code Blue"_ the Raptor pilot practically barked into the wireless.

For the first time in her life, Sandra Walker was scared shitless.

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

"_Until every soul aboard this ship stops breathing, this war will not be over". – Admiral Helena Cain's speech a day after the attack on the colonies._

* * *

**Near Delphi, Caprica**

**29 Years Earlier, a year after the fall.**

Captain Kara Thrace walked through the thick Caprican forest, surrounding her was a squad of heavily armed Marines, as rain fell lightly on the Caprican landscape, now in the early stages of winter, Kara checked her map in order, _Five clicks till' we reach Delphi, piece of cake_, she thought.

She and a Marine Platoon from _Pegasus'_ detachment were on the first ground recon mission since the rescue of the Caprican Resistance, made mere six months earlier, as the cylons had supposedly abandoned the colonies; _Galactica _had been sent back in order to find out if the cylons were really gone.

So far she and her marine platoon had walked eight miles and hadn't seen a single cylon, she wondered if they were really gone or if it was just an elaborate ruse made to make the fleet return to the colonies and wipe it out once and for all.

"I'm freezing my ass in here" Corporal Thomson commented.

"Amen to that" Sgt. Mathias agreed.

As they climbed a middle sized hill and made their way through the thick forest, she noticed that it didn't rain anymore, but that it was snowing, she had always loved snow as a kid but as it never snowed in Delphi because of the warm weather she had never been able to see it before.

Suddenly she saw a metallic glimpse in a clearing that was about a kilometer away from their position.

"Marines, we got contact" she whispered.

"Where?" Sgt. Mathias asked.

"10'o clock, a clearing near that hill, right side" she responded.

Mathias pointed the sight of her Mk59 Tactical Sniper Rifle; with the 8x Magnification scope she was able to clearly see a patrol of four centurions and two humanoid cylons, a Sharon and a Six.

"How many toasters?" Thrace asked.

"One bullet head and two skin jobs, range seven hundred meters" Mathias reported.

"I knew it, no frakking way they would have left the colonies just like that" Thompson commented.

"Maldonado, take out the " she ordered to Cpl. Maldonado, one of the _Pegasus _marines, which had brought an MkIII _Buster _ anti-materiel rifle, which was able to take out Centurions in one shot although very heavy, the rifle had an incredible muzzle velocity of 1.800m/s.

Thrace took the rifle, set it up on the ground and activated the 12x thermal sight.

"Mathias, on my mark, take out the Sharon, I'll take the Six" Thrace ordered and aimed at the humanoid cylon.

"Ready sir" Mathias said.

"3...2...1" Kara took a deep breath "Fire" she whispered.

She pressed the trigger and felt the recoil of the anti-materiel rifle, a mere second later the bullet hit the six right in the head, she also saw the Sharon on the ground dead as a bullet had hit her right in the heart, the centurions were confused at the sudden attack, she took aim at one of the "bullet heads" and fired, the bullet blasted the centurion's head, making it fall to the ground.

"Good shooting sir" Mathias said.

"Thank you; now let's get out of here before the cylons start missing their patrol" Kara said.

* * *

**_370 days after the fall._**

**_Battlestar Pegasus, in orbit of Ragnar._**

Admiral Helena Cain looked at the DRADIS screen, the sound of the clear DRADIS gave her a strange sense of comfort, she was just starting her morning shift when the DRADIS beeped twice.

"Two unknown contacts, bearing one seven nine, karom four two, ten k-klicks away" Lt. Sorto reported from the DRADIS screen, suddenly the contacts shifted from unknown to marking "CYLON RAIDER".

"Set condition one, launch alert five, send CAP to intercept" Helena barked.

"CAP says they will engage in six minutes" Lt. Hoshi reported from his station.

Suddenly the Raiders disappeared from the DRADIS, sending a chill though the Admiral's spine.

"Raiders jumped away sir" Lt. Sorto reported from the DRADIS station.

"Godsdammit" she cursed.

Suddenly one large red icon appeared on DRADIS.

"Cylon basestar, bearing one five karom one eight, a hundred clicks away" Lt. Sorto reported.

"Launch Vipers, nav, take us in, time for some toaster shopping" Cain ordered with fierce determination.

* * *

**_Blackbird 2-5, in orbit of Caprica._**

Cpt. Marcia Case looked at the irradiated world that used to be home to seven billion, she spotted what used to be Caprica-City destroyed, the crater of the fifty-megaton nuke that hit the city was visible from space.

She had been floating on Low Caprica Orbit for the last six hours, and she was extremely bored, she definitely hated recon missions.

Suddenly her DRADIS beeped twice.

As she saw two Cylon Baseships appear on her DRADIS, she spooled up the FTL drive.

"Time to get the frak out of here" she said to herself and her ship jumped.


End file.
